The Foundation for a Great Website

3 Questions to ask when building a website

The more detailed the answers, the higher the chance of success:

1. Who is the target audience?
   
   • Age, gender, religion, interests, hobbies, professions, what do they read, where do they spend their free time, what music do they like, etc.
   • Make a picture of the 3 or 4 "ideal" targets.
     
     
2. What is the purpose of the site for the USER?
   You have to ask this question from the perspective of the USER - not what the company wants. If you don't fulfill a NEED in the USER, you won't have a successful site.
   
   The purpose has to be a NEED for the Target Audience: focus on the visitors. If you make the users happy, the users will make you happy.
   
   • What will the USER get out of the site?
   • What do you want the USER to experience?
   • What should the USER walk away with?
     
     
3. How will you get website traffic?
   • How will people find you?
     • Search Engines?
       What optimization will you do?
       How much search traffic is there for your keywords? (www-WordTracker.com)
       How much competition?
       How much are you willing to spend on search engine optimization?
       Warning: Be very wary - there are many services that are a waste of money. You do NOT need to be in hundreds of search engines. You want to be in the top 5 - that is where 99% of the people are.
     • Pay for Keywords?
       How much do clicks cost for your keywords?
       What is your conversion rate and what is your maximum CPC? (cost per click)
       Tip: Don't forget Overture. It's easiest to start with Google, but you can get tons of traffic from Overture - don't sell yourself short.
     • Banner Ads?
       What is your maximum CPM? (cost per thousand impressions)
       What is your CTR from your ads? (click through rate)
       What is your conversion rate?
       For sites that offer CPC, what is your maximum CPC?
     • Print Ads?
       Are you buying unique URL's for EACH print ad so you can track and measure its effectiveness?
     • Blogs? RSS feeds? Classified Listings? Joint ventures? etc...
   • Will people tell their friends?
     Do you help them tell their friends?
     Email to a friend feature? Print Version? RSS feeds?
   • Do you try to build a relationship with your visitors?
     Join an email list, register to download a free whitepaper / eBook / Audio sample, etc...
   • How much traffic do you need to be successful?
     For Example: Your product cost $100. Your profit margin is 50%. Your website conversion rate is 1%.
     Therefore: You need 100 visitors to make 1 sale, so you can spend up to $50 to get a hundred visitors. On keyword advertising you can spend up to $0.50 per click. On banner ads you need to factor in the CPM on top of that - if you banner ads have a CTR of 0.5%, you need to purchase 20,000 impressions to get 100 visitors - which means you can afford a CPM of $2.50.
     
     
   Again, you have to be specific. The more specific you are (and realistic) with budgets, click through rates, conversion rates, etc.. the better your chance of success.